My Sheep Hear My Voice
March 2005
John 10:27 - My sheep hear my voice
and I know them and they follow Me.
My family has its own secret language!
A certain expression, tone of voice
or verbage delivers very specific
messages to my parents, siblings,
children and husband that no one else
would know. We've tried to make others
hip to our inside jokes but it doesn't
work. No one knows the details of
our secret language but us. We have
known each other for so long and in
such intimate ways that we have come
to know each other's voices.
In the Middle Easter sheepfold referred
to in John 27, many flocks of sheep
would stay for the night. When a shepherd
came to retrieve his sheep, the porter
would recognize the man as a true
shepherd and allow him into the sheepfold.
The shepherd would enter the sheepfold
and call. From among the many sheep
in the fold, only his sheep would
recognize his voice as their true
shepherd and follow him out to pasture.
All of the sheep in the fold would
physically hear the call but only
his sheep would recognize the voice,
understand the meaning of the call
and follow the shepherd. In order
to recognize their shepherd voice,
they had to be his sheep. Just like
my family, they had a secret language
with their Shepherd that only they
were privy to. In order to really
hear God's voice, He must be your
true Shepherd. To hear God's voice
in our lives and receive His divine
direction, we must first be sure that
we are a part of His sheep fold. Going
to church doesn't make us a part of
his fold, participating in ministry
doesn't make us a part of His sheepfold
and neither does knowing the Bible
backward and forward. Only when we
come to him and accept Him as our
Savior do we gain the privilege of
hearing and understanding His voice.
In John 8, Jesus spent the entire
chapter trying to reveal deep a spiritual
truth to the Pharisees. They are having
trouble hearing, understanding and
believing His words.
According to verse 47, the reason
lay in the fact that they had the
wrong shepherd. Even though they knew
the Scriptures better than most people
ever will, they still could't understand
the words of Jesus (John 5:39-40).
Have you been unable to hear God's
voice in your life? Have you ever
heard God's voice? If you are Christian,
you have because one cannot even come
to know Christ apart from supernatural
revelation (1 Corinthians 12:3). But
if you are not saved then you cannot
hear the voice of God regarding specific
details of your life. An unbeliever
cannot hear and comprehend the voice
of God. According to 1 Corinthians
2:14, someone who is not in God's
family is completely incapable of
understanding spiritual things. Spiritual
discernment is an impossibility for
someone who has not yet been born
of the Spirit.
In John 10:27, The Greek word used
for "hear" is akauotos.
It doesn't merely mean to be endowed
with the faculty of hearing but also
to understand and perceive the sense
of what is said. Remember, when the
Shepherd called to His sheep, all
of the sheep would hear the voice
but only some would recognize it as
their shepherd, understand what he
was saying and follow Him. After you
become a Christian and as you continue
to grow in the Lord, you will begin
to learn how to recognize the Lord's
voice and understand His message.
A newborn lamb is less capable of
distinguishing His shepherd's voice
then an adult sheep. The lamb will
learn as He gets to know His shepherd
and as he practices responding to
His shepherd's voice. This skill comes
over time as a relationship is built
between the two. I spoke with a friend
of mine recently who works with sheep
and cattle. He told me that his sheep
don't recognize his voice because
he doesn't spend enough individual
time with them. The art of teaching
a sheep to recognize his shepherd's
voice is a lost one. With the availability
of modern technology, shepherd's don't
have to spend individual time with
the livestock. This keeps intimacy
from developing and thus the sheep
from getting to know their owner's
voice.
Gratefully, the change in times hasn't
changed our Shepherd's desire to get
to know us. He still wants to be intimately
involved with us and speak to us on
a individual basis. If you want to
know your shepherd's voice you must
know Him. When you become a Christian
and develop intimacy with the Shepherd,
you get to know Him and develop your
own "secret language" with
Him. The more you get to know Him,
by spending one on one time together,
the closer you get to Him the more
correctly you will be able to identify
His voice.
Did you know that a shepherd can stand
before his entire flock but call one
sheep out at a time simply by the
tone of voice He uses? If he has spent
enough one on one time with the sheep
He can become intimate enough with
them to acquaint each one to a sound
that is uniquely theirs. There will
be no greater blessing to you or I
than to have a relationship with the
Good Shepherd in which we know when
He is specifically calling to you.
And I cannot tell you how much clearer
God's voice has become to me as I
have gotten to be more intimate in
my relationship with Him through His
Word. When I open the pages of Scripture
and become engaged in it seeking to
know Him, I become acquainted with
His character, language and tone of
voice. This enables me to be prepared
to recognize His voice and by the
power of the Holy Spirit, discern
the voices of strangers (John 10:5)
Today, commit to knowing Him more
fully and completely so that you can
hear the voice of your Lord calling,
leading and directing you into His
will for your life.
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